Published
Death of Breonna TaylorThree years in prison for a police officer linked to his death
Against the recommendations of the Trump administration, a police officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor received three years in prison.
A portrait of Breonna Taylor during a rally in Louisville marking the first anniversary of his death, surrounded by a crowd on March 13, 2021.
AFPA former American police officer was sentenced to 33 months in prison on Monday for her involvement in the death of a young black woman, Breonna Taylor, icon of the Black Lives Matter movement, despite the recommendations of the leniency of the Ministry of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice of the Administration of Donald Trump had requested, last week, a prison day, already purged, against this white police officer, Brett Hankison, found guilty in November 2024 by a jury in Louisville (Center-East) to have violated the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, 26.
A requisition qualified immediately by the lawyers of the victim of “insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and flagrant betrayal of the jury decision” and that judge Rebecca Grady Jennings estimated unconvincing, during the pronouncement of the sentence on Monday, report the local media. The magistrate accompanied the prison sentence of three years of parole.
A recommended prison day
“Brett Hankison is the only police officer condemned in connection with the police descent during which Breonna was killed,” said one of the victim’s lawyers, Ben Crump, in advance in violence against minorities.
The victim’s lawyers then welcomed a sentence “greater than the Ministry of Justice claimed”. “We respect the court’s decision, but we will continue to denounce the incapacity of the Ministry of Justice, to firmly defend the rights of Breonna and those of all black women whose life is considered superfluous,” they said in a statement transmitted to AFP.
The Ministry of Justice recommended a sentence of a day in prison – already purged by this policeman during his arrest at the start of the procedure – accompanied by three years of parole. Unusual fact, this recommendation was signed, not from the prosecutor in charge of the file, but of the deputy minister of justice, in charge of civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative lawyer appointed by Donald Trump in this strategic position.
“Almost total impunity”
“The government respects the jury’s verdict which almost certainly guarantees that the accused Hankison will never serve in the police again and also probably that he will never legally hold a firearm again,” she said.
But a heavier penalty would be “unfair”, she said, stressing that “if he made a good fire ten times towards the apartment of Breonna Taylor, he injured neither her nor anyone that day”.
“Recommend only a day in prison sends the without ambiguity message that white police can violate the civil rights of black Americans with almost total impunity,” replied the victim’s lawyers.
Eight bullets
Breonna Taylor had been killed at least eight bullets by police, in his apartment in Louisville, in Kentucky on March 13, 2020. The police burst into it in the middle of the night in the context of an investigation for drug trafficking targeting her former boyfriend.
His new companion had taken them for burglars and had shot with a legally detained weapon. The police had retaliated by pulling more than thirty shots, fatally touching Breonna Taylor.
